Shopping!

Shopping is quite the experience here in Bangalore. I must say that I don't go shopping as a relaxing pasttime. We did laugh on Saturday morning when we found this little cow doing a spot of window shopping. I have never seen a cow in the Commercial district but no one seemed to mind or think it out of the ordinary. Shopping is fruaght with danger from many sides. The footpaths come an dgo in no particular order so you must walk on the raod and avoid the cars and bikes and other pedestrians. Then you must watch where you place your feet as there is often excretment of one form or another along with water of dubious orgins. then you have to avoid the hawkers selling wooden things and dangly sparkly things or maps of India or just begging for money with there tiny little brown fingers grasping your arms. All this is while you are trying to look up and find a store that you need. We went into town on Saturday to get Christopher a suit tailor made. It was very straight forward and Christopher didn't complain too much. We go back next week to have final fitting and if it turns out well we might get him another made. There are little oasis from the chaos like the Florsheims shoe store and you can not help but wonder how these shops exist alongside such poverty and dirt. I now go shopping in this district, which is by far the most interesting and has the best presents for the home folk, by myself of a morning when Christopher can look after Daisy.
Below are the City Markets which I haven't ventured into. I think i will leave this area for the seasoned professionals. I will though get Raj to drive me thorugh and around again before we leave with my camera as the palce is alive with sights and sounds.
Mostly I do my shopping in big sterile shopping malls. At least here I only have to deal with people pinching Daisy's cheeks and taking photos of her. I don't buy much but it is nice to wander around and look at things. There is a cookie man where I have bought us a treat and a lovely coffee shop that I buy Christopehr's coffee beans from. There is a supermarket downstairs that has a bottle shop joined to it and I can buy kingfisher or cobra beer here. Bottle shops are few and far between here in Bangalore. I did buy a lovely pair of jeans from the Lee shop at a total bargain price so next week I will take Christopher to see if he likes any. Nearly everyday we find ourselves in the little grocery store downstairs of the apartments here and i adjust my cooking around what they can supply. They are pretty good here. There is another grocery store near to where Chris works that sells weetabix and other improted foods that we visit occasionally called Namdari's and last week I found that Spencer's now sells philly pastry and water crackers and brie cheese so I lashed out and we had a very fine Sunday of crackers and cheese followed by spinach phillo parcels! i am venturing out a bit more in food and including cheese in our diet as long as it is made from pasterised milk and is in date. I found long life cream on Saturday so we had pasta in a fresh tomato and cream sauce with parmesan bought from Spencers. It was absolutley delicious!! Today though we ar back to dal and rice, which speaking of, I must go and make lunch.
 

Our Road Trip to Belur

Our starting time was 6am! We hadthe forethought not to feed Daisy this time and so Lucy, Christopher, Daisy and I set off roughly on time. Our destination was Channekeshava Temple in Belur a mere five hour bus ride from Bangalore! We headed out on the Goa/Mumbai road and saw the western side of the city. It was much more industrial and yet was much more densely occupied than the rest of the city we have seen. The road had lots more lorries and far less sights to see like rice paddies or coconuts plantations. It was at least two hours before we felt we were in the countryside and travelling through small villages. We stopped for coffee at a local bus stop kind of place where we had smoe nasty nasty toast. Unfortunately a lot of effort had been put into our toast as it was layered and cut into fingers and arranged on a plate to a lovely effect but the strawberry jam that it was smeared with left it to be unpalatable so the coffee was to suffice. Daisy had trvelled well so we fed her ome fruit puree and a glass of water. Ten minutes down the road Daisy felt she didn't like this either and so promptly returned it to my lap! A roadside stop, and bottled water bath all round we were on our way again. The road was quite congested with cows, oxen, wagons, lorries and people and so we found that it took 6 hours to arrive and not 5 like the bus. The Channekeshava Temple was quite an impressive site. It was begun in 1116 to commemorate the Hoysalas' victory over the Cholas at Talakad (I am not sure who these people are or where this place is, anyway...) The temple is surrounded by a large courtyard that you can wander around and there are further smaller temples within this.
The temples are carved out of soapstone and they really are impressive with the detail that they managed. The Hoysala style temples are the most elaborately carved of all Indian temples. We arrived here at midday and found wandering around the courtyard and the temples to be incredibly hot! We had to take our shoes off as this temple is still in use so our feet took quite a beating on the hot stones. It was lovely and cool inside. In one temple I left a small donation and got to wave the heat form a candle over my forehead (I had learned this trick from a monk in the Hare Krishna temple in Bangalore) The monk inside the temple then gave me 'mint water' which he said I had to drink so I pretended to and made a hasty exit. The water did smell very minty and refreshing compared to the searing heat in the courtyard. It was an amazing place and we found ourselves sitting in a pavillion and watching the colourful saris and clothing of the Indians wandering around this ancient place. Back in the car, Raj headed off on a mission and we looked at each other and wondered where our next adventure would lead us. To lunch, we were hoping but this was not to be.
Raj, our driver loves backroad and we soon found ourselves on one such road. the sky was filled with heavy black storm clouds that we were begging to drop their rain but this was not to happen while were we still in the safety of the car. Our next destination was Halebid and another Hoysala style temple. this one was much smaller and more beautifully carved. It was quite astonishing, even enough for us to forget our hunger temporarily as by now it was after 2pm. Then the rains came so it was back into our car and in search of food. Raj took us to an lovely vegeatarian Indian resturant that was filled with locals so we thought it must be good. i had a jar of food for Daisy and as she had been able to keep bananas down we fed her this food. Within minutes she had covered the resturant and Christopher. The waiters were very helpful and Daisy was grinning from ear to ear with all the attention. We ordered lunch and let Daisy wander at will and we took it in turns to play with her and eat our meals. Then it was back in the car and heading home. This took five hours but the last two were in Bangalore evening traffic. Raj loves his backstreets so again we saw parts of the city that we would normally never see. It was the tail end of the Ganesh Festival, a week long festival celebrating the elephant god Ganesh and we drove through two small processions of dancing and drums and people carrying statues of the gods. They were very colourful and loud and a pleasure to come across. We arrived home about 9pm and soon found ourselves in bed after a long long but interesting day. 

It's Competition Time!

To say a big Thank You to all our readers, we're holding a competition. The prize is this wonderful elephant-themed hanging ornament. Featuring a style unique to India, this will take pride of place in any home... perhaps it could be yours?


Complete with the original "Handicrafts Museum" bag, this highly desirable item features a brass bell with heart-shaped clanger and an assortment of blue, red, white and gold beads along the string. The golden elephant is oranmented with a silver toe-ring whilst the colours of India are represented by the orange and green pom-poms.


So what do you have to do to win this slice of the subcontinent? Simply post a joke to this blog entry. There's only a few rules. The jokes must be suitable for a wide audience (so that rules out most of yours, Tiel), there's a limit of two jokes per person and the winner will be decided on Saturday October 7th by a panel of two: Leanne and me.
That's only three weeks away, so put your thinking caps on and good luck! 

Banglaore Transport Part Three: 4 Wheels and Above

Now for the final installment of my series of blog entries that show you what's on the roads of Bangalore.
First up is the Hindustan Ambassador. Based on the 1948 Morris Oxford, these are still manufacturered and are a very popular choice. Renowned for having the most comfortable back-seat, they are still a very popular car.

Ever the masters of reinvention, Hindustan Motors also used to make a model called the Contessa (pictured below). This too began life as a British car, this time the Vauxhall Victor. Legend has it that my father used to have one, although I'm not sure that his would have had a "Jesus Loves You" sun visor.



It's not all rebadged British cars though. There's also heaps of rebadged Japanese cars too. Ferocious import duties and luxury taxes mean that many companies partner with local firms. Suzuki have partnered with a firm called Maruti, who manufacture old models that the rest of the world has long moved on from. Still, this means that Indians get cheap, tried and tested transport that does the job amicably.
Below is a Maruti 800 that's been prepared for a wedding. They do love their flowers here!


Once you've made it in India, you'll be looking for a mode of transport that's more suited to your needs. There's not much of a market for the likes of BMW and Mercedes here. Instead people seem to jump several rungs on the ladder and shift right to the top. Occasionally (and I mean very very occasionally) the sea of rehashed metal makes way for something that would be ostentatious even in Chelsea, Manhattan or Middle Ridge.
Parked outside the hotel next to our apartment complex was this Rolls Royce. Heaven knows how much this would have cost after all the taxes would have been paid, but I wouldn't mind betting that it was considerably more than it would have cost back home.


It's such a shame that as soon as you step out of your Rolls, you hit the awful, awful stench of the 'river' that flows just behind those bushes.

That's India for you -- a true land of contrasts!

And I'll be ending this post with a special mention of the trucks. Mostly brightly coloured and decorated with flowers, they are a cheerful addition to the Inidan roadscape.

Aunt Lucy's Safe Arrival.....then shopping!

Lucy arrived safely and excitedly. We were so looking forward to having her and showing off where we live. Our first morning was quiet as Lucy had only landed at midnight. Christopher and Raj eagerly met her at the airport while I volunteered to look after Daisy and grabbed a bit more sleep! I had heard about some markets that I wanted to see so in the afternoon we all loaded into the car, dropped Chris at work and then headed to the markets. We found ourselves in the grounds of an art college and in amongst the most wonderful craft markets that I have found here. There was a band playing traditional music and the whole place had a carnivale feel to it. It reminded me very much of the Eumundi markets behind Noosa in Queensland for it earthy handmade qualities. The band was hilarious and they soon roused the crowd to a mass of dancing and arms and foot stomping.
Apart from the shopping, which proved to be fruitful, the grounds were old and tropical and the trees filled with monkeys. (I spied five so that takes me up to six which was equal to Chris's total up until the next day where he spotted one sitting on the side of the road! Our competition continues for the first to see ten monkeys) There was a small temple in the grounds which made for some great photography. We bought hand made soap from the himalaya and wood blocks from somewhere else, admired cloth from Rajastan, bought hand made paper and pottery and leather shoes. It was a lovely lovely afternoon.
 

Singapore Stopover

All to soon we found ourselves back on the aeroplane and heading back to India. Christopher arrived in Australia late on the Tuesday evening and back on the plane by Sunday night. We had an overnight flight to Singapore where we organised a day to sightsee. It felt a though we had just closed our eyes when they were turning on the lights for breakfast and an hour out from landing. We didn't feel very refreshed after the last few hectic but wonderful days surrounding Nic's wedding but had to agreee that we must have had some sleep. We arrived into Changi airport at 5.30 in the morning. We changed Daisy out of her pyjammas and ready for the day. From the safety of the terminal we could already feel the steamy air outside coming through the opening doors. A Singapore airlines hostess was absolutely wonderful and helped us find the tourist counter and a bus trip innto town. This booked we wandered off for breakfast. Macdonald's pancakes and 'the full breakfast' was the order of the day. Our bus left at 8am and the only part of Singapore open at that time of the day was an area of the city called 'Little India'! The city that we passed through was just beautiful, everything manicured and clean clean clean! The plants and flowers were magnificent and the smell of recent rain hung like honey in the air! We decided there and then to move to Singapore. We spent our morning wandering the streets and looking at electronics and digital SLR cameras. We almost bought one, or two. Christophers favourite place was SimLim Square which was about five floors of gadgets!! I tried to remain thrilled to bits with the fourteenth mp3 digital firewire dock USB drive but eventually found myself fading. A trip to Raffles was the only cure. We caught a taxi and found ourselves inside imperial England again. The road signs outside read Mountbattan drive and the guide books wrote of Rudyard Kipling drinking in the bar. The hotel was impeccable and cool and inviting.
There were about three or four coutryards surrounded by tropical gardens and each held a fountain. These were the best bits according to Daisy. Singapore weather was much much hotter and more humid than here in Bangalore so we didn't mind hanging around the water too much. We found the 'Long Bar' and ordered a Singapore Sling each. Christopher has since read that the only place to get original and authentic Singapore slings is either at Raffles or on Singapore airlines. The bar had quite a rustic, mascuoine, hemingway kinda feel to it with peanut shells and sparrows littering the floor. Our drinks went down very nicely and we found time to sit back and soak it all in. So we ordered another and sat back a bit more. We decided to let the return bus slip and we would just surround ourselves in this oasis of calm and clean and cool. Daisy even behaved herself for most of it and charmed the other guests. We got the bill and reality began to sink in again, $76 for four drinks!! Now we couldn't afford the taxi back to the airport. (It did remind us of when we were travelling in Paris at Christmas with Tim and Pam and Tim was horrified to discover that he had paid 8 euro for a bottle of coke, which also reminded us of the time that he paid 8US dollars for a bag of chips in Alaska, it made us laugh) We were in time for the free bus to come around again so we loaded up our belongings and headed off. Back at Changi we got our free slice of pizza from the tourism board and settled into chairs to wait our flight home. By this time we are pretty tired and Daisy has passed out. The plane trip wasn't one of our better ones but we arrived home safely and were in bed by midnight and we all slept til 7am when another day began back in Bangalore.
 

All in Australia!

Arriving in Australia was a breath of fresh air. The airport was clean and ordered. The Immigration officials (I am now officially a resident!) had a sense of humour and I was soon in the back of a Holden Commodore, reunited with my family, cruising on the smooth, uncongested Queensland highway out to Toowoomba. Magic!


But there wasn't much time to get settled. The house was a buzz with preparations for Nic's wedding. Daisy seemed to have grown up in the 10 days since leaving India. The photo above shows her sat at her school desk with her colouring books. She's not quite figured out how to draw yet but she knows how to hold a crayon and tries to wave it near the paper, so fairly soon everything will be covered with scribbles.
The desk was to be given to John and Betty's first grandchild, and so it'll now be Daisy's to enjoy (although I'm sure she'll share it with any other siblings and cousins that may come along).


It's winter in Australia, but there was a heatwave the week we arrived and Toowoomba was threatened with level 5 water restrictions. Although it was quite cold in the mornings, the temperature rose to the mid-twenties in the daytime and so we were all able to work and play outside; something that Daisy particularly loved.
We think she's going to like living in Australia!


One afternoon, Leanne, Betty and I went out to a local dam to find kookaburras. They took a while to show but eventually a few turned up. We were out there for about an hour and on the drive back saw wallabies hopping around. They are a very cool creature indeed.


Australia felt like home. In India things work very differently and even buying groceries can be a monumental struggle. Since getting back to India, I've discovered that my assignment may end in mid October rather than the end of November. Although there's still things we want to do, we're both looking forward to being in Australia permanently.

So, if you want to visit us in India, make sure you book it soon. We may not be here for much longer! 

Blog updates coming soon!

A number of you have asked whether we're still blogging. There's been a lull for sure, but it's only because so much has been going on. This photo is of the Australian coastline near Darwin.


As well as our trip to Australia, we visited Singapore. As soon as we returned, Lucy arrived and we've been been visiting all sorts of places with her.
Check back soon to read all about it!